The Kettering Foundation |
Martin Carcasson works with students at Colorado State University to help
communities solve problems while exposing students to community issues.
Carcasson, an associate professor of communication studies at Colorado State
University (CSU) and founding director of the CSU Center for Public
Deliberation (CPD) is “Dedicated to enhancing local democracy through
improved public communication and community problem solving.”
The CPD is now seven years old and has trained hundreds of students
and community members in facilitation, community issue analysis, and public
meeting engagement. Two such meetings titled, Reinventing
Transportation took place at two locations in Loveland and Fort Collins,
CO in March 2014 focused on creating an aging friendly community.
Carcasson and 30+ of his students
partnered with seven organizations including the Loveland Chilson Center,
the Fort Collins Senior Center, the Senior Transportation Coalition, the
Larimer County Office On Aging and Larimer County Mobility Council to host the
meetings which were attended by 90+ community members.
MartÃn stated the following about
the Reinventing Transportation meetings; "Since
November 2011, the CPD working with the Fort Collins Senior Center, the
Loveland Chilson Center, and the Fort Collins & Loveland Senior
Advisory Boards, has engaged over 500 people at five events on how to build on
our current strengths and keep Larimer County as a wonderful place for all
ages. The March meetings respond to
what we heard from both Fort Collins and Loveland; that issues connected to
transportation are the most important for us as a community to address and will
explore “rethinking transportation” with an emphasis on ensuring our senior
population remains engaged and enjoys a high quality of life.”
Martin states in the Kettering interview; "The focus is primarily on
the community level, which we describe as Northern Colorado, or perhaps more
accurately Larimer County. As we have matured, I would say that we run projects
in the community, of which convening public forums is a key aspect. We began as
an organization that primarily ran meetings, but a lot of the work we do now is
focused on before or after the meetings themselves".
"We essentially provide a set of services tied to deliberative
engagement, including analyzing issues from an impartial, deliberative
perspective, to working to identify and connect a broad range of stakeholders
to the issue, to facilitating productive conversations among those
stakeholders, to writing reports on those meetings, and finally to helping
groups move towards actions."
Carcasson feels that "communities need capacity for passionate
impartiality to take on wicked problems, and that while universities are not
really a good fit, they are likely the best shot communities have." He
goes on to say, "...organizations like United Way, League of Women Voters,
and community foundations can also provide passionate impartial infrastructure,
but doing the work well takes so much time and so many different skills, I
think it is hard to expect them to be able to do it on their own."
The Reinventing Transportation meetings are an excellent example
of the success of Martin's program. The level of analysis from the
community feedback received at the events would not have been possible without
Martin and his students help. The results are still being analyzed but
multiple organizations are eagerly awaiting the CPD final
report which will help them to better understand the public's senior
transportation needs and concerns.
For the full interview with Martin and to learn more about
the CSU Center for Public Deliberation, visit the Kettering Foundation @ http://kettering.org/kfnews/observations-from-a-hub-of-democracy/
Martin Carcasson was interviewed by Jack
Becker. Jack Becker is a former research
assistant at the Kettering Foundation and currently a graduate student at
Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He can
be reached at jackabecker@gmail.com.
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